HOUSE PHYSICIANS - ACCOUNTABILITIES AND POSSIBILITIES

Current house physicians' practice, responsibilities, and earnings are reviewed, House physicians are licensed, ordinarily institutionally b ased, typically salaried physician employees of 1 or more hospitals or systems. Many are hourly workers, often foreign medical graduates or physicians in training, with little professional status and less visib ility. Yet managed care sees a new, creative role for house physicians that makes them masters of quality and models of service, No longer d ependent beings shielded by an institution's coverage, house physician s can emerge as efficient, educated champions of inpatient medicine. T o produce hospital generalist physicians for the patient's good, physi cian availability, institutional financial incentives, and patient val ues must align.